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1. sky
   Posted January 8, 2008 at 11:27 pm | Permalink

   Free the algorithm: Wikia launches open-source search engine. (ars technica)
   Wales says that Wikia Search will be open to users in two ways. First, anyone can rank search results by using a simple five-star system. Second, the backend systems that power Wikia Search will all be open-source projects like Grub, and anyone with a bent for coding can get their hands dirty with the actual search algorithms that operate in the background.

   Wales thinks that users want more; they want real transparency about the way that the search engine produces results, and they want a hand in tuning these results.

2. sky
   Posted July 29, 2008 at 12:53 am | Permalink

   New search engine takes aim at Google. (CNET)
   Cuil. Developed and run by the husband-and-wife team of Stanford professor Tom Costello and former Google search architect Anna Patterson, it’s pitched as bigger, faster, and better than Google.

   Cuil results are automatically categorized. When you search for a common name, for example, Cuil will give you a result page where results for different individuals with that name are groups under tabs. It will also break out sub-topics related to each name. In Cuil’s canned demo, if you search for “Harry,” there are different tabs for “Harry Potter” and “Prince Harry of Wales.” On the Harry Potter tab, you’ll get further sub-links devoted to actors, Gryffindor dorm-mates, etc. “We have a strong ontological commitment,” Costello told me, meaning that parsing search results into readable chunks is a very big part of the Cuil value proposition.

3. sky
   Posted August 3, 2008 at 11:15 am | Permalink

   Cuil engine foiled by strawberries and muffins. (The Register)